Aftermath of a Hypothetical Smallpox Disaster

The second day of the symposium featured a discussion of a scenario in which a medium-sized American city is attacked with smallpox.Four panels represented various time milestones after the attack, from a few weeks to several months.Panelists discussed what they and their colleagues might be doing at each of these milestones.The goal of the responses was to communicate the complexity of the issues and to explore the diverse problems that might arise beyond the care and treatment of patients.The scenario itself was a step-by-step account of a smallpox epidemic in the fictional city of Northeast.Tara OToole, the scenarios lead author, read the narrative account before each panel.The panelists responded to the events as if the epidemic were real and they were actually trying to identify, contain, communicate, and otherwise deal with it.Panel members included experts on hospital, city, state, federal, and media responses.